Friday Felines

Why is everything we do so darn interesting to this cat??  I swear he is an alien posing as a cat, sent here to study us on planet Earth.

Fall is Coming ...

For those of you who are familiar with Game of Thrones, you'll get the title (its not Winter yet).

Every year the aster heralds the coming of fall.  It borders the woods in our yard.  The other day I saw one, every day another pops up.  Now there are several.

The coming of fall means goodbye to the frogs who have sat, jumped in and made their weird froggy noises around the pond all summer.

It also means goodbye to all the beautiful flowers around the yard.  This one I thought was a weed when we moved here, then my husband saw some at the local nursery.  These grow along the walkway that wraps around our house.  As more pop up, he transplants them, so we now have a nice border all along the walkway.

At the grocery store yesterday, I shouted, are those mums???  Then said, oh yeah, its almost September.

Don't Drink and Knit

This is the result of a horrific accident involving alcohol and knitting.  Here you see the aftermath of a terrible accident where the knitter decided to get behind the needles and operate while under the influence.  The pattern was damaged severely during the accident.  While the incident unfolded, the knitter as well as her accomplices, Kraken (rum) and Dr. Pepper were observed by onlookers as being off balance, uninhibited and unable to properly operate the needles.  The result - a dropped stitch and a defaced pattern.

Friday Felines

Yeah, I know, not a cat.  But here's my super cute angora bunny who has grown so much in the last few months!!

The answer to everything is ... 42

Because the answer to everything is 42.  If you get that ... welcome to the club.  If you don't ... well you missed the nerd boat and you're still standing on the pier.

Since that's the answer, I am jump starting my path to finding time for hobbies, by focusing on finishing The Hitchhiker!

Tick, tick ... tock (continued again)

If you have followed me this far on my journey, you know that I have come to the conclusion that I have approximately 3 hours per week for each of my hobbies.  That equates to 25 minutes per day for each hobby.

I haven't quite figured out where to go from here.  Obviously I don't want to schedule so strictly that these hobbies are no longer fun and become chores.  I do know that in order for something to become a habit, you need to perform it for 21 or 28 (depending on the source) days consecutively.

The plan - keep track of my progress of these hobbies for 21 days.  I will consciously perform these tasks on a regular basis, for at least 3 hours per week until they become second nature.

Knit
Spin
Fiber
Dye
Read
Write

In addition, I want to feel better, so I am allotting 15 minutes per day to each healthy body task:

Stretch
Tai Chi
Meditate
Exercise

Stay tuned next week once I establish a plan and record my progress!!

Tick, tick ... tock (continued)

At this point (time), I've figured out what is missing (void) and what I need to *do* to rectify it (schedule).

Schedule!

Here are the things I want to do (accomplish) in the time that I have, and in order to do those things, time needs to be allotted to accomplish each task.

Tasks:

Knit (number one because this is a knitting blog)
Spin
Fiber
Dye
Read
Write

Those are great for the mind ... in order to have a healthy mind, we need a healthy body for it to live in.

Stretch
Tai Chi
Meditate (yeah this is mind, but it helps the body)
Exercise

And in order to have a healthy mind and body, we need a nice place to live and food to eat.

Based on our last exercise, I have 52 hours per week, the hours left over excluding sleep and work.  So let's clean the house - 30 minutes per day and one hour each weekend day.  That's 4.5 hours per week.  Now we are down to 47.5 hours left.

Now we need to cook and eat.  That's 5 hours per week (time spent eating while at home and preparing meals - left overs included of course :o)  Now we have 42.5 hours left.

Well a clean house makes for a happy mind, so let's allot 30 minutes per day, plus 1 hour per weekend day to the mix.  Now we're down to 38 hours.  Let's not forget paying bills and shopping for the food and the products necessary to clean the house.  Let's allot 2 hours per week for that.  Now we have 36 hours left.

36 - I have 36 hours left for hobbies and fun.  Well reading I enjoy, let's allot 1 hour per day to that.  Now we are down to 29.  If I allot 15 minutes per day to each healthy body task (notice how this is now a task and not a hobby :o)  I have 22 hours left.  I know have a little over 4 hours per week for each hobby - knitting, spinning, prepping fiber dyeing and writing.

So what' the problem?

Well at the moment I attend physical therapy twice a week, that takes an additional 1.5 hours per session, so three hours lost.  That leaves well over 3 hours per hobby (3.8 to be exact, but we're forgetting bodily functions - bathroom, socialization - conversations and um - other things :o) and just plain observing life.  So let's say 3 hours.  Still plenty of time per week.

I think my next action should be to record a day, perhaps a weekday and weekend day.  Now I won't bore you with micro details (like bathroom time), but I'll record major time events - knitting, talking on the phone with my BFF for 3 hours, catching up on tv for 2 hours, reading, writing .. staring off into space (hey, we all need down time), etc.

Stay tuned, I am making some serious progress here!!!

Tick, tick ... tock

The clock is ticking away, time is passing and what am I doing with it?  I feel its wasted and lost.

Wasted Time ... let's investigate this theory that is squishing me into the corner.

Time = the duration of human existence.
Wasted = done to no avail; useless.

This is what I feel like, wasted existence.  To exist is one's lifetime.  There are only so many years in a lifetime, days in a year, hours in a day, minutes in an hour and seconds in a minute.  Why waste even a single second?

I've finally gotten back into reading on a regular basis, that makes me happy.  Now I am also writing as well (and you're reading some of it here :O).

What else makes me happy?? Knitting, spinning, playing with fiber.  I spend all day working to make money to make these hobbies a reality, but that's just it, they are there - reality is the quality or state of being real.  They are real, they are there, they do exist, but do I do them?  Not consistently.

Do - to perform, to execute, to accomplish, finish or complete ... ahh herein lies the answer.  So do I accomplish, finish or complete ... nope, not this year.  This lifetime, yup, I've done some.  But this year ... not many.  There is a void - empty, useless, ineffectual ... yup that's what I'm feeling.

So how does one rectify this predicament?

Schedule - a plan of procedure, usually written, for a proposed objective, especially with reference to the sequence of and time allotted for each item or operations necessary to its completion.

Oh I've done this before, allotted time to perform certain acts, but did I perform or do them - nope ... why?

Because I get distracted - now this is a fun word!  Distracted - rendered incapable of behaving, reacting, etc. in a normal manner, as by worry, remorse, or the like, irrational; disturbed.  So now I'm crazy.  Well yeah, I'll admit I am a little, but in the fun way.

 Fun - something that provides mirth or amusement.  Well who the heck wants to be normal??

Normal - conforming to the standard or common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

I don't want to be normal.  But I do want to spend my time in a fun way.  So let's look at abnormal, fun, spending and time.

Abnormal - not normal, average, typical or usual (so far, so good).

Fun - enjoyment or playfulness (sounds good to me).

Spend - to pass (time) in a particular manner, place, etc. (I've got the place, now let's find the manners).  I'll do you one more - manner - a way or doing, being done, or happening; a mode of action, occurrence, etc.

Time - duration as regarded to belonging to the present (yup I'm with you so far).

So, in recap, what I am NOT doing is spending my time in a particular manner.  This is what needs to be rectified.  Clearly I need a schedule, I've got the time and I've got the manners (things to do).  So it leads us back to the initial question, why am I not doing?  Because I am distracted ... by what?

Well work takes up 12 hours per day (getting out of bed and ready 2, travelling to 1, working 8 hours, travelling from 1 = 12).  I don't think a definition of sleep is necessary, we all know what that is and why its important.  So 8 hours there.  That leaves 4 hours per weekday and 16 per weekend that I have free ... to some extent, yes the cat box needs cleaning and dishes, laundry and floors need to be done.  So let's say 3 hours per weekday and 14 per weekend.

Where is this time going??

Stay tuned, I can't figure it out all today ... because I need to go to bed to get the sleep (hopefully 8 hours) to get up for work (2 hours) and drive there (1 hour) and work (8 hours) and get back home (1 hour) .. maybe in my 3 extra hours I'll figure it out tomorrow :o)

I hope you had fun reading this little exercise in exploring a theme and word play for me ... but seriously I need to figure out where my time goes!

Friday Felines

This is why we can't have nice things :o)  This table was supposed to be something in the hall for flowers or a nice ceramic bowl for keys ... nope.

VideoCast Catch Up

Episode 27






Episode 28





I'm behind on posting the podcast, so here are the last two episodes!

Friday Felines

Nikoh

There's a lot going on behind those eyes.  We adopted him from a rescue.  He's the smartest cat I've ever lived with.

He often paws at me and meows, then looks confused, like - why doesn't she understand what I am saying??  He intently watches us and mimics -  he's great at opening doors.

He gets mad easily, I think because he gets frustrated that we don't understand him or that what he is trying to do isn't working as he planned.

He's persistent and never gives up.

I "get" him, even if he doesn't think so, I love that he's quirky and weird ... so am I.

Too hot to knit

Its just too freakin' hot to knit today!

Friday Felines

Momma's boy Riley

aka Ri
aka Ri Jones
aka Riley Jones
aka "Jones!!", Dr. Rene Belloq - Indiana Jones / Raiders of the Lost Ark
aka Jonesy Boy
aka Bubba
aka Bubbs
aka Bubby
aka Hi Love!
aka Hi Lovey!
and last, but not least aka Mommy's good boy, oooh the bubby, oh I love my boy, oh Jonesy!

I do think he has the most nick names in the history of pets ... mainly because he's so loved and spoken to all the time :o)  But rest assured, he comes running to at least the first four and always when the cat treat bag is ruffled :o)